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DIMITRI'S 50 BOOKS READ IN 2017
28.
by
Fyodor DostoyevskyFinish date: 15 March 2017
Genre: Russian Classic Literature/ Autobiography
Review: I love this story ever since I read a YA version of it. In its original form, I also get to immerse myself in the grim realities of tsarist Russia, with self-evident details for the contemorary reader that you need to learn about from scratch anno 2017 in order to get everything out of it. While it's not impossible to recount a prison sentence in diary form without descending into the mind-numbing repetitiveness that is the bane of the bars (see Paul Modrowski's blog) , it was a wise decision to use a thematic approach once the overwhelming impression of his first days had worn off.
It's undoubtedly popular fare with advocates of prison reform, but Dostojevski's humane view on the 'scum of the Earth' incarcerated in Siberia feels overdone on a few points: where are the truly callous criminals of the Vorovskoy Mir ? Where there none in his prison or are they simply left in the background as those prisoners who never accepted an aristocrat in their midst ? Where is the prison rape ? Did he have to leave that out not to offend 1862 sensibilities ?
Mod
29.
by
Alistair HorneFinish date: 17 March 2017
Genre: military history
Rating: A
Review: The memories of the fall of France are blurry on account of the sheer speed, with the Panzer spearhead reaching the coast within a week. Horne is in peak form here, switching from the lowly sentry to the erratic directions of the Allied high command as he jerks the reader along.
The Belgian army never makes it out of the ghostly stage. (No fair.) Surprisingly, Dunkirk also remains in the margins. As it did at the time. France had fallen, most people didn't care too much exactly how the BEF cleared out.
Don't let the pace fool you: there's a lot going on within these pages, with that mixed flavour of history and memory that became rare as the 1960s faded to a close. The final chapter on the reminiscence of the battle tastes the strongest, written when the veterans sent their children to school and started to agree that their were better things to life than to transfer hate to the next generation.
30.
by Alexander Turner (no photo)Finish date: 27 March 2017
Genre: military history
Rating : B+
Review: Huge WWI battles aren't Osprey's strength, but this one hits the mark. Plenty of attention to the preparation, maybe a little too fast on the storming of the crest on April 9th.
Turner likes to point out the hidden efforts, such as the labour gangs that unload shells of the trains onto narrow gauge railways, or the sheer number of miles of trenches and underground attack corridors that were carved out of the chalky soil by hand. He is consciously light on the nation-building tune that so many Canadian students of Vimy adopt.
He's walked Vimy, flown over Vimy and writes a "battlefield today" section that lures you to the cafés of Arras... but he doesn't shy away from the horrors of war: the Bavarians, trapped on their narrow hill, are bayonetted as they fire their field guns point-blank at the Canadians descending the ridge onto the green plain towards Douai... shot in the back or skulled with a sharpened club during a trench raid ... and shown as corpses in both photo and drawing.
31.
by Yisrael Gutman (no photo)Finish date: 27 March 2017
Genre: Holocaust studies
Rating: B-
Review: So do I love this book as planned ? The book, yes, the author, not so much. For a veteran of the Ghetto Rising he's often curiously detached when scetching life in the ghetto. He needs passages from other survivors for flavour. They are often drawn from books in Hebrew (or Yiddish?) so they're very welcome in English.
Passion breaks through his voice twice: during the actual fighting, when people would hang onto their subterranean bunkers even as the air became too hot to breathe or poisoned by gas. Odd: not a word on the sewers! His second passion is born of a grudge. Gutman is perhaps more vicious towards the Poles than the Nazis: it all boil down to a bitter "the Poles did nothing".
32.
by
Laurie R. KingFinish date: 28 March 2017
Genre: detective novel
Rating: C+
Review: One for established Martinelli fans only. After a neo-medieval commune and the homeless excentrics of the park, King shows us another San Francisco subculture. Not sure whether it's that of the women's shelter or the mysoginic aspects of Indian culture. It's all very flavourful, but there is less Personal Stuff between Lee and Kate and no Jules. The Kali quotes make it a VERY transparent whodunit; these academic detours to the police procedures fail to to advance the plot while revealing the twists.
APRIL 33.
by Ian Ousby (no photo)Fiish date: 5April 2017
Genre: French history
Rating: B+
Review: L'enfer, c'est les Autres. Sartre's oft misanthropically expanded line on the occupiers and collaborators in wartime Paris suits an atmosphere of ambiguity which runs like a grey thread throughout the book. At the grass roots level, the necessities of primus vivendur overrode consciences and turned eyes blind. But what can you do when the Germans systematically loot your country into deprivation ?
The answer : the options were not simply 'resist' or 'collaborate'. There is no verdict on the mythology of the Fifth Republic, with De Gaulle as the titan of a united and tenacious national Resistance, but it is revealed to be a mythology.
A perfect introduction, no more, no less. Ousby was not an accredited historian, but he makes up for that with an unashamed love for a country that was first uprooted and then turned on itself. There is a lot fit within these 300 pages but it is crafted in an uneven manner: only at the end do you realize just how much Résistance was written here compared to the understated presence of Pétain and the Jews.
34.
by
Richard HolmesFinish date: 13 April 2017
Genre: military history
Rating: C
Review: Holmes' little life has been widely used since 1981, with the result that the most interesting parts have become well-engrained into BEF litterature
From the quarter of the book that deals with the BEF operations - ok, a third if you add the 1906-14 planning period- there is little to redeem "donkey" French or his 1914 memoir. But really , all we want to hear about is the war.
35.
by Christopher De Bellaigue(no photo)Finish date: 17 April 2017
Genre: Iranian politics
Rating: B-
Review: The events of the coup occur as sudden and swift as the word warrants. This book focuses more on the significance of Mossadeq in 20th century Iranian politics and on the fariscal facets of the Cold War doctrine.
Like most such topics, the shadow of the Islamic Revolution hovers backwards, with the Ayatollahs demonstrating their capacity for mobilizing the masses and the Pahlavi's coming out of this strengthened but discredited. Very sad if you consider that Mossadeq was foremost a visionary who relied on popular support, but without the political acumen to translate this into a stable power base.
Mod
36.
by
John TerraineFinish date: 18 April 2017
Genre: military history
Rating: B+
Review: John Terraine covers the entire Retreat of the BEF to the Aisne in his usual crystal prose, with balanced judgement towards the commanders that were so ahead of their time (1960's) that they feel ironically overused now. For example, Joffre is slow to realize the danger of the German right wing but always firmly in control, The stock images of cavalry and mad minute British musketry always come with a twist detail.
37.
by
Aldous HuxleyFinish date: 21 April 2017
Genre: Dystopian Fiction
Rating: B
Review: This is probably the most relevant dystopia for the modern world. Huxley's sociologic criticism anno 1932 is as fresh as the sarcasm of Thackeray and Wilde. Paranoid Conservatives in particular will identify a large degree of hedonism and promiscuity already present. Outside the PC view, the peer pressure behind public life is a recognisable aspect in the social media age.
That's the good part. The bad part ? Huxley isn't George Orwell, even tough they both know how to paint the demise of their nonconformist cruisader in memorably bleak tones, each in theor own way. This novel is less fun to read and re-read.
One 'vision of the future' aspect that has dated less well is the birth control. I can't help but wonder what Huxley would've done with that idea if he'd written this after WWII.
Seems like everyone in the world is reading either this one or Orwell's. I like them both but this time, I may just go to the "feelies" instead.
MAY38.
by Bruce Cherry (no photo)Finish date: 2 May 2017
Genre: social history
Rating: A
Review: The Loos Cemetery holds the body of a 19-year old private, his headstone inscribed "in loving memory by his mother and father". Too young to die in any case, I wondered: "Have you at least had a woman, boy ?"
Since sex is an almost universally private subject, its history is usually found between the lines. Cherry is honest about the considerable caveats in the Edwardian source material, so she turns to fiction & interviews from the 80's.
It is clear that "no size fits all": some married men stayed true, some didn't, some become enthousiasts. Some boys lost their virginity in the arms of a peasant girl rather than in a conveyer-belt bordello, but as often economic necessity was a powerful drive behind the prevalence of these amateurs.
Discovery of gonorrhea during the 'short arm inspection' disqualified a spouse of much-needed financial support by the Army. One of the most shocking aspects of the book, which has no place in the commonplace hagiographic battle studies of the Great War, is men going over the top with a rotting crotch, determined to find the bullet that would end it all. It reminds us that the Tragic Heroes With No Known Grave were living young men, no different from us.
Dimitri, are you saying they refused the men payment or refused to send it to their families if they came up with gonorrhea yet still kept them in the Army?
Pamela wrote: "Dimitri, are you saying they refused the men payment or refused to send it to their families if they came up with gonorrhea yet still kept them in the Army?"B: They refused to send it to their families if they came up with gonorrhea yet still kept them in the Army. Originally, you were shipped home in disgrace to be treated there. I recall some Aussies being shipped back from Egypt just before Gallipoli that way.
That's a terrible policy. I'm surprised there weren't mutinies over it. I would think ending up at home in disgrace would be a more effective deterrent. If anything would, that is.
39.
byJim Smithson(no photo)Finish date: May 4
Genre: military history
Rating: B
Review: Smithson devotes over a 100 pages to detailed analysis of the planning for this "forgotten battle" and even more so to the division of authority over the war's conduct between the generals and the civilian government in London which was reaching a boiling point at this time. Exhaustingly exhaustive, we then follow each division on the first day. Most achieved their initial objectives; their titular "taste of success".
The next chapter is aptly called "the unravelling" because the book...unravels... because the battle unravels. WWI staff officers, knew no plan survives the first contact with the enemy and there was no live communication, so why bother planning beyond the first day ? Smithson is adamant on this point, identifying numerous opportunities for exploitation that jointly could've unbalanced the German defence.
It's the little things that make up life in this histoire de bataille , that make your eye halt and go back a few lines. VC citations for that everyman level. The adequate number of maps, for once. Most importantly, in identifying the Battle of Arras as a showcase for Western Front tactics in their puberty. The Somme had given ample proof that there was never going to be an infantry walkover simply by throwing enough ordnance on top of the Germans. Those airplanes were good for more than artillery spotting. Those tanks had potential. These were elements to add to the mix. One had to meticulously place the A, B, C and D in a rectangular shape to arrive at a breakthrough. This tactical evolution was maturing down the road to Cambrai in November.
40.
by
Ian RankinFinish date: May 10
Genre: detective
Rating: B-
Review: Rebus takes a PC stand on immigration. The harsh realities of their lot as illegal tenants are (f)actual, but is the surrounding sprinkles of politics still up to date with the Syrian exodus ? There's enough of that Edinburgh flavour to keep things interesting between the investigation. It was the first Rebus I ever read and it certainly paints the protagonist as a man whose private life is consumed by a slow burn.
41.
by
Carl HiaasenFinish Date: May 11
Genre: dark comedy
Rating: A-
Review:Fact is stranger than fiction. In Carl Hiaasen's case, this may be up for debate. His fiction surely flavours fact. As an ecological champion native to Florida, he writes what he has lived. Among his multiple protagonists, at least one will be employed in the field of journalism and serve as the straight man.
These are not heroes: they are swept away into a never-ending parade of Sunshine State oddballs who might be your neighbour. Others are larger-than-life caricatures of the forces that be on the edge of the Everglades, ever ready to push virgin land back in the name of progress with the bulldozer.
It's hard not to warm up to Hiaasen's daft eco-Rambo, Skink, who makes his memorable debut here. As for Double Whammy It's also hard not to take a word of caution as a hobbyist in whatever sphere ) : don't overdo it. Don't be defined by one thing in life. If a hermit can hang onto a first edition of Marquez' Cien años de soledad, we can live a plural existence. Even without a Fight Club to separate us from our professional roles.
Sounds good to me, Dimitri, and it's already on my TBR.
42.
by
T.H. WhiteFinish date: 16 May 2017
Genre: low fantasy
Rating: C+
Review: I wish I could like this better, many older readers sound very nostalgic about this as their gateway to Arthurian canon. But these four books (why 4?) don't go anywhere.
Apparently this book was puzzled together from White's earlier writings; this would explain the disjointed feel I get from reading it. On one level you're reading a catalogue of stock Arthurian mythology which has come to me both in print and on the screen. On the other White inserts non-fictionesque paragraphs on the medieval art of war and commentary on Thomas Malory's epic.
The overall tone remains very light-hearted, but the sense of destiny is lacking: the inclusion of Holy Grail stories strays us from the path of tragedy that ends with Arhur's death at Mordred's hands.
43.
by
Philip K. DickFinish date: 18 May 2017
Genre: alternative history
Rating: B-
Review: A missed opportunity ! While his take on the most popular landscape in Anglo-Saxon alternative history is admirable, Philip is being a Dick with the story he sets against this background. There is trademark bleakness, but I hope the TV series offers more world exploration. And less*** I ching. Why would even the Americans use it , really ?
The psyche of the Axis victors is strongest on continued anti-Semitism and a curious form of inferiority complex not unlike the one Greek culture cast upon its Roman conquerors. A nice touch. Totalitarianism is easily seduced into a Freudian measuring contest. A further case in point: Lufthansa intercontinental rocket travel. The same technology makes the German colonisation of the Solar System possible, but the purpose or profit of this endeveaour remains nebulous.
Operation Dandelion is sadly the most neglected story arc. It carried the most potential to roam this realm from the POV of a High Castle. Unlike most dystopian protagonists, Dick's small cogs stay where they are, feeling the grind of a society which puts them in their place. His grassroots view illustrates that at least, with an ambiguity that shows the overlords to be just as unhappy in their own way.
44.
by Alexander Turner(no photo)Finish date: 19 May 2017
Genre: military history
Rating: A-
Review: Alexander Turner, stop writing Ospreys and start writing full-bodied books on the 1917 wrestling on the Siegfried line. You've got "it" with your gritty descriptions of violence that aren't cloaked in the solemnness of IWGC headstones. Lonesome tanks were easy prey in an urban environment, where potato-mashers and Mills bombs cross eachother overhead. Others met their end at the projectiles of Flak canon, the ancestors of WWII's infamous tank killer, the 88mm AA gun. Fury and fatalism mingle as infantry runs into eachother's counter-attacks with fists and rifle-butts and sharpened spades.
You also don't put up with stock explanations such as "not enough infantry reserves" because Cambrai wàs the birth of armoured warfare, in the sense that large-scale use of armour was integral to the plan. It was also the revival of combined arms warfare, with all the novelties of the 20th century working in tandem: the infantry went over the top with Lewis guns shouldered, the artillery drew a finely woven fire curtain, the Mark IV's crushed the wire belts and airplanes prowled like buzzards.
45.
by
Carl HiaasenFinish date: 22 May 2017
Genre: dark comedy
Rating: B
Review: Hiaasen's green conscience takes a backseat in this story of a stripper mum caught between a loony ex-husband and a horny congressman. Luckily, his brand wit doesn't. I haven't seen the movie, but a faithful adaptation would look too absurd to work. This sort of book works because it looks larger-than-life.
Mod
Bentley, I re-read the introduction. That means I can't review here yet the 4 books the HBC is officially currently reading nor the book of the month, correct ?
Mod
Note: Check the introduction thread; I have provided an example - you can still post the shell of the format but leave the rating and review blank or add TBA until the discussion is over.
Dimitri wrote: "MARCH25.
by Frederick C. Schneid(no photo)Finish date: 1 March 2017
Genre: military history
Rating: B
Review: An..."
I stumbled on this book some days ago at the University library and I decided to take it because at the end of the month I will probably go at the reenactment of the battle of Solferino, glad you rated the book a B! I didn't read yet but it seems that I did right following my impulse.
Petit Chevalier wrote: "I stumbled on this book some days ago at the University library and I decided to take it because at the end of the month I will probably go at the reenactment of the battle of Solferino."There's a reenactment of the battle of Solferino ?? I need to take a day off at work !
46.
byDavid Murphy(no photo)Finish Date: 24 May 2017
Genre: military history
Rating: B-
Review: A brief workhorse account of the futile offensive that broke the spirit of the poilu, good enough given the scarcity of books in English dealing with the French offensives of WWI.
"The Germans did not conform to Nivelle's requirements" It's impossible to better A.J.P. Taylor's verdict, as Nivelle's plan to break the Noyon salient was a best-case scenario. It all boiled down to a tenfold increased version of his assault that led to the recapture of Fort Douamont. His skillful orchestration of a fire curtain was worthy of his background as an artillerist, but against the ridge of Chemin Des Dames it performed poorly. The infantry assault went as bad as every pushover plan on the Western Front.
The four army groups involved used up all their reserves as they gained footholds on the rain-soaked terrain at great cost. The chaulkstone soil, like at Arras, was honeycombed with refurnished quarries and other subterranean strongpoints which quickly earned nicknames such as the Caverne Du Dragon , belching death and destruction while seemingly invulnerable to anything but a direct hit from a distant railroad gun. Time and again, even ferocious Senegalese and Chasseurs broke under a deadly game of peek-a-boo began when , supposedly suppressed German machine-guns surfaced at their backs.
The politics surrounding the cushioned fall of Nivelle are woven discreetly into the events on the ground; the infamous mutinies are dealt with separately. Murphy makes an interesting point concerning the lack of German opportunism. The fact that they pulled back to the Hindenburg Line in February clearly shows they didn't have the manpower to exploit the disarray on the French front with an offensive of their own ; also, for all their refusal to attack and be killed for nothing, it is far from certain that the defiant rankers would've let the enemy pass without a fight.
47.
by John P. Langellier(no photo)Finish Date: 24 May 2017
Genre: military history
Rating: A-
Review: Conclusive proof to my eyes that to get the skinny from Osprey, the Warriorseries soundly beats the Man-at-Arms booklets. Recruitment, weapons, tactics an the daily life without a seam-by-button dissection of the uniform.
The focus lies on the steep learning curve of volunteer amateurs in all aspects of war. Which jacket and headgear are most comfortable? which regulation kit can you readily discard before going into battle? Did you learn to deploy from column into line from the right manual among several in circulation in the U.S. ? Did it teach you how to execute the order or fire flawlessly, or will you run to the rear with a gun crammed full with bullets ? Are you lucky enough to possess a true repetition rifle, or a converted smoothbore ? Be there a suttler and cook at hand, or will you soak your hardtack into coffee to float the weevils out ?
48.
by
Jeff LindsayFinish Date: 25 May 2017
Genre: thriller
Rating: D
Review: The fans made up their own closure when the TV series let them down (alltough its final minutes were very dark indeed in their own way) : perhaps the most appealing was to reveal Dexter's chronicles as a fleeting flaashback, conjured as he is strapped into an execution chamber, perhaps with Deborah looking on.
Jeff Lindsay gives us door number three. It puts into question the line between Dexter as he appears in print and on the screen. Will the anhedonia hold ? i can't decide whether it's a proper send-off. Part of me wants to see him ride off into the sunset with knife dripping. The story is thin, first crawling along before picking up pace a straight road towards its advertised conclusion.
49.
by David Yelton(no photo)Finish Date: 25 May 2017
Genre: military history
Rating: B+
Review: A curious title that uses a fictional composite character "Otto Decker" to describe the typical experience of an elderly, ill-equipped Volkssturmmann that faced the barrage-happy British Army as static infantry, with predictable results.
The folly of a militia armed with Panzerfauste and vintage WWI arms is revealed in the grimm reaction to its consitution, the lack of interest among historians and re-enactors alike. Neither did it leave a legacy of military bonding among its members: most had fought and lived through the Great War, only to see their sons fall and their country destroyed to the full. They were really too old for this shit.
50.
by Ian Drury(no photo)Finish Date: 25 May 2017
Genre: military history
Rating: A-
Review: A matter-of-fact look at the life of the Union infantryman's foe, with the accent upon scarcity and deprivation that failed to get the better of Lee's dirty, ragged wolves.
JUNE 51.
by
Antony BeevorFinish Date: 2 June 2017
Genre: military history
Rating : A+
Review: Beevor has written an ode to the troika of the battlefield: the strategy, the courage and the horror.
While the story surrounding the origins of the amphibious invasion may be familiar to your average WWII buff, he adds the complex details that neutralize the predetermination of hindsight. The learning curve, sketched in blood on the concrete of Dieppe and the beaches of Italy, spelled the possibility of failiure to the extent that Eisenhower prepared a mea culpa note. The logistics on an unprecedented scale hinged on the limited number of Landing Craft Tank and other vessels, forever juggled between the various theaters of war.
The courage is acknowledged on both sides, with WP62 making its customary appearance on Omaha. The amount of first-hand snippets is as rich as Ambrose's, sometimes colourful ( an officer on a magnificent white stallion leading a squad of Caucasians) but less salted with Audrey Murphy heroism. Instead, the sometimes suicidal bravery leaves a bitter taste, beginning with the empty emplacements on Pointe du Hoc. The carnaged columns in the Falaise pocket are complimented by the smell of burning flesh when a tracer bullet ignites a GI's phosphorus grenade. A physician treating wounded civilians after the bombing of Caen - which hardly touched the German line of resistance in the suburbs - saw wounds "worse than at Verdun".
52.
by Ian Passingham (no photo)Finish Date: 8 june 2017
Genre: military history
Rating : A-
Review: "a 100 years ago..." the largest non-nuclear explosion caused by man occured. The attrition of the Somme and Arras had, ironically, given the British in Flanders extra time to take underground warfare to a new level.
An entire German first line went up in 19 infernal mushrooms. A private of the Australian 4th division, blooded at Pozières and Arras, charged vengefully forward with bayonet fixed... to find a shell-shocked seventeen year old with shrapnel sticking out of his spine, weeping and holding on to his leg out of instinctive preservation.
Sleek and smooth, like an extra-large Osprey, with good maps and lay-out that's easy on the eyes. I'd never seen actual photos of a company studying a scale model of the terrain over which it will attach for real, but here we are.
It's clear that we need to get our head out of our *** about 1917: It's always nothing but Passchendaele lamenting, while the tactical evolution from the Somme to 1918 goes undermentioned.
the creeping firewall, the aerial artillery spotting, the platoon armed to the teeth with rifle grenades and light MG's ...that's trench warfare becoming a bit mobile again. Passingham does a great job of illustrating this.
53.
by
Craig RobertsonFinish Date: 11 june 2017
Genre: thriller
Rating: B
Review: For fans of John Rebus ! A nice Rankinesque novel. The vigilante plot may be formulaic, but the Glasgow flavor and the semi-outsider POV of the antagonist - a police photographer - compensate entertainingly for this
54.
by
James BowenFinish Date: 12 june 2017
Genre: autobiography
Rating: B-
Review: A heart-warming story with a cat is a guaranteed hit, even for a cynical cat lover such as myself.
It's just a pity that we learn nothing about the steps James Bowen undertook to gain financial security from Bob's internet fame; where's the day of discovery by a publisher who urges him to write down his odyssey? Still, he keeps the story focused on Bob ; more than we can say for the interminable Spencer passages sprinkled in with the adventures of Dewey...
55.
byCarl Smith(no photo)Finish Date: 17 June 2017
Genre; military history
Rating: B+
Review: A solid entry in the Warrior series, with a focus on the training as still largely practised today at Ft. Benning. It needs less technical specifications about guns (unless translated from text to chart) and more D-Day stories, or Market Garden ones. We do read this to get smarter about Band of Brothers.
56.
by David Lomas(no photo)Finish Date: 20 June 2017
Genre: military history
Rating: B-
Review: The customary introduction elements (origins of the campaign, opposing commanders and armies) are awfully inadequate, but there is a tòn of tactical discourse within this slim spine: Lomas picks up the story right after Le Cateau until the leaves have fallen in November, which means most of the fighting retreat by the BEF precedes the actual stand around Ypres, a Salient shaping that can fill four volumes (ca. 500 pages) in the Battleground Europe series in itself.
Like a well-stuffed meat pie or a good mead : to enjoy slowly.
57.
by Lochlainn SeabrookFinish Date: 25 june 2017
Genre: revisionism
Rating: C+
Review : Is the conflict really presented in American high schools as oversimplified as 'Honest Abe vs. the Evil Empire of Slavery" ? If so, many of the "falsehoods" are worth bringing to the attention of the general public in an easy-to-digest format to remind us that there's two sides to every conflict, while history is written by the victor.: Lincoln's suspension of the habeas corpus , the relocation plan to Liberia, his very moderate stance on abolitionism, northern racism, The material devastation caused by a war primarily fought on Confederate soil and the "I's fighting 'cause you's down here" mentality of most Confederates...
That said : Revisionism seldom manages not to overstate is case and Confederate writers are no exception. Especially the "truths" about the benign reality of slavery are suspect.
The virulent attack on PC history taught as part of a "liberal-socialist conspiracy" equally overshoots its mark. By the time I made it past the introduction I knew this was going to be a bumpy ride. This book would be shown the door to Dixie if it did not have some obscure facts to offer.
I am undecided on the extent of the black contribution to the Confederate war effort. Apart from the "occassional darkie [scuttler] with a cart of oysters" and the officers' servants, mainstram ACW history only mentions a few black units mustered in Richmond at the very end of the war that never saw combat.
Mod
Dimitri wrote: "57.by Lochlainn SeabrookFinish Date: 25 june 2017
Genre: revisionism
Rating: C+
Revie..."
FYI - This is a good article on a reputable site on black Confederate soldiers -
https://www.fold3.com/page/1201_confe...
A very interesting list of peculiar examples (including mixed re-enactment!). thank you, Mary Ellen.The mainstream view holds up, but is is disquieting to hear Edwin C. Bears of all people admit that ACW historiography took a turn to silence on the subject of blacks in grey as the survivors started dying out.
I taught high school history and had a descendant of a black confederate who was an SCV member do a presentation to my class. But alas he is gone. It was years ago and I wish I had recorded it.
Wow. Just noticed that you passed 50 books Dimitri! Congrats!
Mod
The History Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Het einde van de Rode mens: Leven op de puinhopen van de Sovjet-Unie (other topics)Vimy: The Battle and the Legend (other topics)
The Cambrai Campaign 1917 (other topics)
Het Ardennenoffensief. Het heroïsche verhaal van het meest onderscheiden peloton in de Tweede Wereldoorlog (other topics)
The Battle of the Bulge: Hitler's Final Gamble (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Svetlana Alexievich (other topics)Tim Cook (other topics)
Andrew Rawson (other topics)
Alex Kershaw (other topics)
Patrick Delaforce (other topics)
More...
Finish date: 14 March 2017
Genre: Iranian history
Rating: A
Review: in hardcover format, this is perfect to clobber Ben Affleck over that *** introduction to the events of Argo, which recycles the worst Khomeini propaganda about the Pahlavi's lavish lifestyle and a hugely inflated number of political prisoners.
This is a basically sympathetic portrayal of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, with a heavy scent of nostalgia lingering among the trees that protect the Teheran highways from the desert winds. An authoritarian facade masked the warmth of his family life and Spartan daily routine.
As the cancer ate away at him, he increasingly considered his people ripe for democracy. Throughout his life, he had supervised the modernisation of Iran into the 20th century with both hands firmy on the reins because the mind catches up at the pace of generations.
The political turmoil as seen from the ivory tower placed him in a Catch 22 position : respond by force and fuel the discontent, but stand down and watch Islamist terrorism blaming its victims on you.